News

The majority of residents of Chechnya are convinced that Russian officers Arakcheev and Khudyakov accused of murdering three Chechens in January 2003 will incur no punishment.

President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili who has announced that early election of the president of Georgia will be held on January 5, 2008, also suggests holding a parallel plebiscite about the date of parliamentary elections.

The international organization Human Rights Watch thinks that the police of Georgia used excessive force at dispersing the meetings in Tbilisi.

Today, broadcasting of Russian TV channels ORT, RTR and NTV, and of the Euronews channel, has been stopped in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia.

Alambek Yasaev, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Chechnya, has been dismissed. According to some sources, he is now in Moscow.

Ten parties, including the "Republic", "Democratic Homeland", Armenian All-National Movement, Liberal-Progressive and Conservative Parties, People's Party of Armenia and others, demand to stop unjustified criminal prosecution of the participants of the peaceful march on October 23.

The court has not allowed Mikhail Trepashkin, ex-FSB officer, convicted for disclosure of state secrets, to be present at consideration of his cassation complaint against the decision to toughen his punishment serving conditions.

Nazim Guliev, editor of the newspaper "Ideal", has been sentenced today by the Nasiminskiy Court of the capital of Azerbaijan to 2.5 years of imprisonment for slander and insult.

Broadcasting of the oppositional TV Channel "Imedi" that had earlier belonged to businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili was stopped in Georgia. The operation could be watched live on air: special police fighters rushed into the studio - and the broadcasting stopped.

On Wednesday, as a result of the clashes in Rustaveli Avenue and Riket Square in Tbilisi between special police units and the opposition 360 persons were injured.

At the press conference in the capital of Azerbaijan on November 5, Daniel Fried, US Deputy State Secretary, speaking on the situation in the sphere of journalism, has repeated the thesis on inadmissibility of arresting journalists for their published articles.

Operative officers of the Tax Service of Armenia have beaten journalists and broken TV cameras in the studio of the "Gala" TV Channel in the city of Gyumri.

The Observatory, an international human rights organization, has expressed its protest against illegal detention and expulsion from Russia of Anna-Mari Gelen, an activist of the human rights NGO Pax Christi International, who is known for her work on the problems of Chechnya.

Residents of Chechnya believe that the statement of the leader of separatists Doku Umarov about creation of the "Caucasian Emirate" has no real grounds and is beneficial for the authorities of Russia.

The Promyshlenny District Court of the city of Stavropol has started debates of the parties on the criminal case in relation to inspector of the unit for minors' matters of the Promyshlenny District's Interior Department, accused of committing a crime under Article 285 of the Russian Criminal Code (abuse of ex-officio full powers).

Fatimat Tekaeva, Rasul Kudaev's mother, believes that placing her son into the sweat box was undertaken with the aim not to let him survive till the trial.

In the opinion of Archil Gegeshidze, an expert of the Georgian Foundation of Strategic and International Studies, the November 4 interview of President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili failed to meet the expectations of the people who heard nothing new.

On November 9, the Supreme Court of Adygea will consider not only the issue of zoning of the Sochi National Park, but also the extent, to which "the national judiciary mechanism has got rusty."

In the opinion of the experts, the reforms of the judicial system of Georgia gave no expected result, and this is one of the recent heaviest failures of the authorities.

On November 4th, the National Unity Day, the so-called "Russian Marches" were held in a dozen of Russian cities, bringing together from several hundreds to several thousands of participants.